Is A Prenup Right For You? / Georgia

Prenups are designed to protect assets brought into the marriage, and if you don’t have any yet, don’t feel as if you’re doing something wrong by not asking your partner for a prenup.

Prenuptial agreements – prenups – are a study in contrasts. On the one hand, you are pledging to love and care for your future spouse for life, for better or for worse, while on the other hand you are jotting out a kind of contingency plan. Face it: a prenup is not a romance enhancer.

Still, especially with blending families, a prenup can be a prudent tool to maintain peace and domestic tranquility between the respective sides of the to-be-formed family. Love may be blind, but it is best to enter the marriage with both eyes open. Not surprisingly, the use of prenups is on the rise.

For an interesting perspective on the prenup, consider a recently published article fromReuters called “Three things to consider before you ask for a pre-nup.” What exactly should you consider?

Well for starters, every prenup represents the coming together of two very different and complex financial lives, two lives of separate assets and separate liabilities. Things can get complicated quickly. A prenup, however, offers both a way of seeing difficulties and of resolving them far in advance.

Another interesting take-away from the article is that future inheritances ought to be addressed in the prenup, not just your current income and assets. How and when an inheritance may be received can be extremely important, especially when the inheritance may include important family assets, even ownership in a family business. Consequently, those planning for such “family assets” in their estates today already may be asking of their children to include these assets in the prenuptial agreement negotiations simply to protect the family.

There is much to consider when it comes to planning a prenup, in addition to a wedding itself. If you are needing a little more encouragement, then a Forbes article titled “Why I Decided To Get A Prenup — And So Should You” may help address some of your concerns.

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Reference: Reuters (November 27, 2013) “Three things to consider before you ask for a pre-nup”